


For Want of a Tree

by Red Charade (traciller)



Series: A Coldflash Christmas [4]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Banter, Barry is impatient, Christmas fic, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Len is a good husband, M/M, Pet Names, Teasing, christmas tree hunting, domestic!Coldflash, married!Coldflash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-26
Updated: 2015-12-26
Packaged: 2018-05-09 11:28:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5538197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/traciller/pseuds/Red%20Charade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barry and Len are looking for the perfect Christmas tree. Barry thinks there are better ways to go about this. Len disagrees.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For Want of a Tree

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own The Flash or any of its characters. I am not making any profit from this fanwork, it is purely for entertainment purposes only.

“No.”

“What’s wrong with it? It’s cute.” Barry says, staring at the tree.

“It’s not cute, it’s pathetic. It looks like that tree from A Charlie Brown Christmas.” Len countered.

“….You watch A Charlie Brown Christmas?”

“….”

“And you’ve watched it recently enough to remember the tree…”

“Scarlet…”

“When did you do this?? Was I at work?”

“You’re missing the point, Red.”

“What’s the point, Len?” Barry asked, sighing and putting his hands on his hips.

“The point is that we’re not getting this pathetic tree.”

“It’s taller than Iris.”

“I’m not sure you’ve noticed, but Iris isn’t exactly an Amazon, babe.”

“Babe?”

“Focus, Barry.”

“I am focusing. I’m focusing on the fact that it’s freezing out here and you want to look at each individual Christmas tree because we just have to get a live tree, which we’ll probably throw out the day after Christmas, when we could be in a warm department store picking out an artificial tree.”

“I can’t believe that you, Barry Allen, are such a heathen. An artificial tree? For Christmas? In our first home? No.”

“It makes the most sense, and then we can keep it for next year, too.”

“Get in the Christmas spirit, Scarlet.”

“I would, if we were in a warm department store…”

“This one.” Len said, snow crunching beneath his feet as he walked away from Barry and over to another tree that was…frankly gigantic.

“That will never fit in the house.”

“I can make it fit.”

“It’ll scrape the ceiling.”

“You’re exaggerating.”

“I’m really not.”

“Fine. Then let’s keep looking.”

Barry whined, giving an exaggerated sigh as he followed Len.

“I get wanting the perfect tree, but come on, Len. I’m tired and my feet hurt and it’s cold out here.”

“Wow…” Len looked back at Barry with raised eyebrows.

“What??”

“If your idea of a Christmas miracle is regressing to the age of 4, I think you’ve gotten your wish.”

“Len!”

“Will you just chill, Scarlet? It’s not like we’re in the woods, we’re in a Christmas tree nursery. You can see the street.”

“Did you just…No. No puns right now. I can’t deal with your puns, Leonard.”

“Well, get with the program, then. We’re not going to a department store so that you can buy some frosted pink monstrosity to put in our living room window.”

“It wouldn’t be frosted pink!”

Len looked back at Barry, incredulous.

“It would be blue.”

“Oh my god…” Len had to stop for a moment and put his gloved hands over his face.

“What?” Barry asked, tone challenging.

“I just…I need a minute after that.”

“Stop being so overdramatic.”

“My husband wants a fake blue eyesore to pose as a Christmas tree in our living room for everyone to see. I think I’m entitled to a minute to process.”

Barry sighed. “What about that one?” he was going to just ignore Len’s dramatics and hope they went away. Although, the “ignore it and it’ll go away” strategy worked about as well with this as it did with everything else…which is to say not at all. But, Barry was nothing if not optimistic.

Len looked it over. “No…no, not that one, either.”

“Why not? It’s the perfect size.”

“It’s a little sparse with the needles, though. We need a nice bushy one.”

“We need a furry fir so that we won’t be able to hang the ornaments properly?”

“A furry f—Is your blood sugar low, Scarlet?”

“Very funny.”

“No, I’m serious.”

“You’re not the only one who’s allowed to make puns, Len.”

“Fine, but I did just remember we’ve been away from home for a while. Between the store and here, I think we’ve…Jesus, has it been five hours since you last ate something? Damn, I’m sorry, baby. Here.” Len dug through his pockets and came up with a ham and turkey sandwich, made with real ham cut from the bone, real turkey right off the bird, and gourmet cheese. In fact, all of the ingredients were fresh. That was homemade bread, too.

Barry’s mouth watered a little. He had to swallow. “Well, I guess I could eat…” he would let the ‘baby’ thing slide.

Len handed it over. “Sorry, it’s not a lot. I have another one, but nothing for you to drink. Once we get this tree thing figured out, we can stop by a Big Belly Burger or something to tide you over.”

“With a giant tree in the back of the truck?” They were borrowing the truck from one of Len’s friends, and Barry had just simply not asked who it was. Barry wasn’t sure he’d want to know.

“Why not?” Len asked, looking at Barry like he genuinely didn’t understand why that might be strange.

“Never mind. Let’s just find a tree.”

Barry unwrapped the sandwich from the plastic Len had put it in for transport and freshness, and then took a bite, moaning at how good it tasted.

“You know, I’ve noticed that you moan better for my food than you do for my–”

“Len!”

Len grinned, not the slightest bit sorry.

“We’re in public. Stop it.”

“Nobody’s even out here right now.”

“This place is filled with giant, fat trees. You have no idea if someone’s out here or not.”

Len rolled his eyes and they kept walking.

“This one.” Len said, reaching over to tug lightly on the hood of Barry’s coat to get his attention, since he was facing away from Len looking at another tree.

Barry turned around, expecting to see some other ridiculous choice that wouldn’t fucking fit in their damn house, but instead…

“Hey…yeah, that one might just work.” he said, looking it over, walking around it. It was big, but Barry was positive it would fit in the house and it wouldn’t pose a risk or brush the ceiling.

Len grinned. “Great. I’ll go get someone to help us out with it.”

“Hey, I don’t want to just stand here…”

“Sorry, Scarlet, but I don’t want to take a risk of you fainting on your way there and someone has to stay here with the tree.”

“I won’t faint, I’m fine. And why should one of us have to stay with the tree? It’s not going to uproot and walk away.”

“So that when we come back we don’t have to spend another hour figuring out where the tree was in the first place. If you’re standing next to it, there’s no way I’ll forget where it is, Red.”

Barry kind of blushed at that and he was glad that it was cold enough out here that it would just look like his face was red from the weather.

Len grinned, though, apparently spotting the difference.

“Shut up and go. I’ll stay here.” he grumbled.

Len leaned over and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek. “Thanks, Barry. I really want this Christmas to be a good one for us. You’re really sweet to make that happen for me.”

Now Barry was really blushing!

“Oh, Len…”

“I’ll be back in a flash.” he said with a wink and turned to walk away.

Barry tried to look annoyed, even if Len wasn’t able to see, but he couldn’t manage it.


End file.
